Joe Biden s first presidential information convention was notable for what was lacking after predecessor Donald Trump: no contentious exchanges with reporters, no Fox Information and no questions on COVID-19.
The final omission was in all probability the least anticipated, contemplating the pandemic has killed greater than half 1,000,000 Individuals and saved a lot of the nation house for the previous 12 months.
Many within the information media had been impatient since Biden had not submitted to a proper question-and-answer session with reporters till his sixty fifth day within the workplace. When he lastly did Thursday, it was carried stay on the foremost broadcast and cable information networks.
Earlier than taking a query, Biden introduced he was setting a brand new objective of getting 200 million vaccine doses for the coronavirus administered throughout his first 100 days in workplace.
And that was it. Not one of the 10 reporters who questioned him, some on a number of subjects, introduced the subject up. Noting that in a tweet, Sheryl Homosexual Stolberg of The New York Occasions mentioned the questions “counsel that coronavirus is not Matter A.”
“Fairly certain it’s for the American individuals and the Biden White Home,” White Home Chief of Workers Ron Klain tweeted in response.
4 questioners introduced up immigration and the Mexican border, whereas three requested in regards to the filibuster, the arcane Senate rule that can be key to getting laws handed. Not fairly three months into workplace, Biden was requested whether or not he would run for reelection and if Vice President Kamala Harris could be on his ticket.
Biden was often direct, often windy and infrequently cagey in response to questions. When a Bloomberg reporter requested particular questions on financial coverage and China, Biden as a substitute launched into a prolonged verbal treatise on relations between the 2 international locations.
A query about gun management devolved into an extended dialogue of the president’s infrastructure plans.
Some reporters, noting the unlikelihood of being referred to as on once more as Biden consulted an inventory for reporters to take questions from, made queries on a number of subjects.
Whereas former President Trump’s periods with reporters typically included nasty exchanges, there was none of that with Biden. Whereas he was typically pressed, like when NBC’s Kristen Welker tried unsuccessfully to pin Biden down on media entry on the Mexican border, there was nothing notably harsh.
With solely 10 reporters referred to as upon, some have been overlooked, together with anybody from The New York Occasions. So have been reporters from retailers standard with conservatives, and favorites of Trump when he took questions as president.
Newsmax’s Emerald Robinson wasn’t referred to as upon, and no reporter from One American Information Community was within the room. Fox Information Channel’s Peter Doocy, who had some memorable exchanges with Biden on the marketing campaign path, wasn’t referred to as upon.
That rapidly turned a difficulty at Fox, the place the chyron “Biden Snubs Fox Information throughout First Information Conf” was put onscreen.
“I positively would have instructed the president to name on Peter Doocy,” mentioned Fox’s Dana Perino, a White Home press secretary in George W. Bush’s administration. “Why make Peter Doocy a narrative? Simply take his query and transfer on.”
Doocy, for his half, mentioned later from the White Home garden that he had a binder stuffed with questions able to ask.
“Perhaps subsequent time,” he mentioned.
